Scully cleared over corruption slur

The former transport minister, Carl Scully, has been cleared of claims of political corruption stemming from the Menangle bridge affair and has launched an attack on his chief accuser, the Opposition Leader, John Brogden.

An Independent Commission Against Corruption report released yesterday says there was no evidence that the Government, in the last days of the March election campaign, covered up information that the Menangle rail bridge was unsafe.

The allegations arose when a report by a Wollongong University professor, Ian West, that the bridge south-west of Sydney should be closed to prevent a "catastrophic" collapse was not acted on until days after the election - even though it had been written weeks earlier.

When the bridge was closed, the Opposition savaged Mr Scully, claiming he had monstered Professor West into silence. Coupling the issue with problems with the Millennium train, the Opposition demanded Mr Scully's resignation. At one point Mr Brogden suggested Mr Scully be jailed for three years.

But the ICAC found no one engaged in "corrupt conduct" and that political considerations did not play a part in the Rail Infrastructure Corporation's response.

However, the report did say Professor West told the ICAC he felt the RIC did take the impending election into account.

Professor West said he felt pressured to recommend the bridge remain open with speed limits. "It seemed as though the walls pushed in against me insofar as I was being asked to say '20 kilometres [an hour] is okay' when in fact I didn't feel I was in a position to say that," he told the ICAC.

The ICAC blamed the delay in closing the bridge on a breakdown in communication between Professor West, the RIC, Mr Scully's office and Mr Scully.

Yesterday Mr Scully said the sustained attack on his character had gone beyond "the usual cut and thrust of politics". He called on Mr Brogden to apologise to the bureaucrats whose integrity he had questioned.

In Parliament, the Premier, Bob Carr, spoke out for Mr Scully, who has been seen as increasingly isolated since the election. "The allegations were made, the allegations were extraordinary, the evidence is in, ICAC has reported, the Opposition and its leader have no credibility," Mr Carr said.

But the Opposition was unrepentant. Before the report was released yesterday, Mr Brogden again called for Mr Scully's resignation, this time over the cost blow-out in the Parramatta to Liverpool bus transitway.

Later the Deputy Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, claimed the report raised more questions than it answered, emphasising Professor West's evidence that he felt pressured.

Privately some Opposition figures suggested ICAC lacked the courage to point a finger at the Government.